ribband – a ribbon
scry – to see or divine, especially by crystal-gazing
simples – medicines made from herbs
sucket – a type of sweet, typically orange or lemon slices, sugared and crystallised
tilt – a type of joust played by armoured combatants mounted on horseback
tiring room – the dressing room of a theatre, probably deriving from ‘attiring room’
vittles – food; also spelled victuals
Bibliography
Bremness, Lesley, DK Pocket Encyclopedia of Herbs
Dorling Kindersley, 1990
Dickson, Andrew, The Rough Guide to Shakespeare
Rough Guides, 2005
Fell Smith, Charlotte, John Dee 1527–1608
Constable and Company, 1909
Hibbert, Christopher and Weinreb, Ben, The London Encyclopedia
Book Club Associates, 1983
Jenkins, Elizabeth, Elizabeth the Great
Phoenix Press, 1958
Picard, Liza, Elizabeth’s London
Phoenix, 2003
Weir, Alison, Elizabeth the Queen
Pimlico, 1999
Williams, Neville, The Life and Times of Elizabeth I
Book Club Associates, 1972
Woolley, Hannah, The Gentlewoman’s Companion (1675)
Prospect Books, 2001
If you enjoyed this book, why not try the following,
also by Mary Hooper
At The Sign Of The
Sugared Plum
Read on for a tantalising extract …
Hannah is excited as she embarks on her first ever trip to the capital to help sister Sarah in her sweetmeats shop. But she does not get the warm welcome she expected. Sarah is horrified that Hannah did not get her message to stay away – the Plague is taking hold of London.
Chapter One
The first week of June, 1665
‘June 7th. The hottest day that ever I felt
in my life …’
To tell the truth, I was rather glad to get away from Farmer Price and his rickety old cart. He made me uneasy with his hog’s breath and his red, sweaty face and the way he’d suddenly bellow out laughing at nothing at all. I was uneasy, too, about something he’d said when I’d told him I was going to London to join my sister Sarah in her shop.
‘You be going to live in the City, Hannah?’ he’d asked, pushing his battered hat up over his forehead. ‘Wouldn’t think you’d want to go there.’
‘Oh, but I do!’ I’d said, for I’d been set on living in London for as long as I could remember. ‘I’m fair desperate to reach the place.’
‘No, she sent for me specially,’ I’d said, puzzled. ‘Her shop is doing well and she wants my help in it. I’m to be trained in the art of making sweetmeats,’ I’d added.
‘Sweetmeats is it?’ He’d given one of his bellows. ‘That’s comfits for corpses, then!’
He left me in Southwarke on the south bank of the Thames, and I thanked him, slipped down from his cart and – remembering to take my bundle and basket from the back – began to walk down the crowded road towards London Bridge.
As the bridge came into view I stopped to draw breath, putting down my baggage but being careful to keep my things close by, for I’d been warned often enough about the thieving cutpurses and murderous villains who thronged the streets of London. I straightened my skirts and flounced out my petticoat to show off the creamy ruff of lace I’d sewn onto it – Sarah had told me that petticoats were now worn to be seen – then pushed down my hair to try and flatten it. This was difficult for, to my great vexation, it stuck out as curly as the tails of piglets and was flame red. Nothing I wore, be it hat, hood or cap, could contain it. I pulled my new white cap down tightly, however, and tied the ribbons into a tidy bow under my chin. I hoped I looked a pleasant and comely sight walking across into the city, and that no one would look at me and realise that I was a newly arrived country girl.
It was a hot day even though it was only the first of June, and all the hotter for me because I was wearing several layers of clothes. This wasn’t because I’d -misjudged the weather, more because I knew that whatever I didn’t wear, I’d have to carry. I had on then: a cambric shift, two petticoats, a dark linsey-woolsey skirt and a linen blouse. Over these was a short jacket which had been embroidered by my mother, and a dark woollen shawl lay across my shoulders.
I’d been studying the people carefully as we’d neared the bridge, hoping that I might see my friend Abigail, who’d come from our village last year to be a maid in one of the big houses, and also hoping to see some great lady, a person of quality, so I could judge how well I stood against her regarding fashion. There was no sign of Abby, however, and most of the quality were in sedan chairs or carriages, with only the middling and poorer sort on foot. These folk were wearing a great variety of things: men were in tweedy country clothes, rough working worsteds or the severely cut suits and white collars of the Puritans, the women wearing everything from costly velvet down to poor rags that my mother would have scorned to use as polishing cloths for the pewter.
‘That’s a fine red wig you’ve got there, lass!’ a young male voice said, and I realised that I’d paused beside a brewhouse.
I turned indignantly on the speaker. ‘It’s not a wig. It’s my own hair!’ I said to the two men – one young and one old – who were leaning against the wall, mugs of ale in their hands.
‘And fine patches across your nose, too,’ said the elder.
I opened my mouth to say more and then realised that the youth and man outside the Gown and Claret were making fun of me.
‘They’re not patches, William, they’re called sun kisses!’ the first said, and they both roared with laughter.
I picked up my basket, feeling my cheeks go pink.
At The Sign Of The Sugared Plum
AVAILABLE NOW
Books by Mary Hooper
At the Sign of the Sugared Plum
Petals in the Ashes
The Remarkable Life and Times of Eliza Rose
At the House of the Magician
By Royal Command
The Betrayal
Text copyright © 2009 by Mary Hooper
Illustrations copyright © 2009 by Peter Bailey
All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages
First published in Great Britain in 2009 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Published in the United States of America in October 2010
by Bloomsbury Books for Young Readers
Electronic edition published in October 2011
www.bloomsburyteens.com
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Permissions, Bloomsbury BFYR, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
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eISBN 978 1 59990 876 2 (ebook)